Help me with cooling these suckers (146GB 15K SCSI)

[ajm786]

Need your help/ideas/suggestions pertaining to cooling these hard drives.

We have a Dell Poweredge 2800 server that runs SBS Server 2003, w/Exchange 2003 etc. We are upgrading from 6x73GB to 6x146GB drives. The new drives are Fujitsu MAX3147NC drives.

These new drives get HOT. When I say hot, I mean scathing hot, so hot that you can't touch them; they literally get hot to the point of a stovetop.

I imagine putting them into the chassis of the Poweredge 2800 will make things a bit worse, as there is the SCSI backplane that will impede airflow. To alleviate things a bit, I've put a pretty powerful tabletop fan directed directly to the front of the server, but this is only temporary.

What I want to do is upgrade the cooling for our server room, with a higher BTU window unit. The problem that I have is coming up with a schematic for power, since the drives get so hot the point that they will physically burn if the power for the AC were to go out.

Here's what I'm simply proposing. We don't have the budget for a large scale UPS unit; we only have one to protect us from the frequent brown-outs that happen at our location. I simply think it would be best to have both the AC unit and this particular server on the same UPS unit that we currently use, so that when the AC/server uses up the available UPS power, the server and the AC will turn off simultaneously.

Do you have any further recommendations or suggestions on to how I should power and cool this server? Getting another unit to house the drives in are out of the question; it's way too cost prohibitive, and management won't let me do it anyway, so I have to work with what I've got.

Thanks!

[coo-coo-clocker]

Adding an AC unit to the UPS will have a dramatic impact on it's load - I'm sure you're already aware of this.
Perhaps a better option is to install a disk watercooling (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070803-nec-and-hitachi-team-to-water-cool-hard-drives.html)solution. Another option is a Dell air cooling (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Cooling/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=A1149285#Overview)rig. Since you are procuring the new drives anyway, perhaps look at one of the numerous external drive enclosures that Dell offers.

[Ockie]

Sounds like you guys need to outsource your server to a proper cooled facility with proper backup and power. Let me know if you are interested, this is the business I am in. A dell 2800 would cost you about 250 a month to host in our facility, but you will have a proper enviroment, diesel and redundant UPS backup, full redundant infrastructure (SAS-70 certified), and you will have 100mbit full duplex connection to the internet.

As for your hot issue, SCSI drives are hot, they operate at a burning touch. The dell server should keep the drives at bay without them overheating, if it isn't, I would check the fans... if the fans are okay, I would really check the ambient enviroment temperature.

As for your air conditioning comment, I would recomend that you ditch the window unit (why do you have a window in your facility?!) and purchase a proper dual split level airconditioner thats aircooled. With a dual split level unit, you have a little redundancy by having two air conditioning units balancing the temperatures.

Another alternative you have is to perhaps look at a heat removal unit, not an air conditioner, these are expensive in relation to the window or your split system, but they are designed to remove heat, not condition the air.

I would advise against putting the airconditioner on the UPS system, they are not designed for that purpose, you would litterally kill your UPS system and have a very small runtime. What people typically do is put the air conditioner and room on a generator, the servers are on UPS's and the AC's are directly to the generator.... this way, you will have 30 seconds or less of switchover time where the AC is down, should not be an issue with a small facility such as yours. You can buy a small diesel generator or natural gas that has auto start and provide adequate power for a couple cabinets and two ac units.

[ajm786]

Adding an AC unit to the UPS will have a dramatic impact on it's load - I'm sure you're already aware of this.
Perhaps a better option is to install a disk watercooling (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070803-nec-and-hitachi-team-to-water-cool-hard-drives.html)solution. Another option is a Dell air cooling (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Cooling/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=A1149285#Overview)rig. Since you are procuring the new drives anyway, perhaps look at one of the numerous external drive enclosures that Dell offers.

Quite unfortunately, the drives have already been procured. I'm merely dealing already with the cards I've been dealt. You're right. If it were up to me, I'd have gotten an external drive enclosure and be done with it.

Sounds like you guys need to outsource your server to a proper cooled facility with proper backup and power. Let me know if you are interested, this is the business I am in. A dell 2800 would cost you about 250 a month to host in our facility, but you will have a proper enviroment, diesel and redundant UPS backup, full redundant infrastructure (SAS-70 certified), and you will have 100mbit full duplex connection to the internet.

There's absolutely no budget for this, and I've already brought this up to management, and that's something they're simply NOT going to do. :(

As for your hot issue, SCSI drives are hot, they operate at a burning touch. The dell server should keep the drives at bay without them overheating, if it isn't, I would check the fans... if the fans are okay, I would really check the ambient enviroment temperature.

Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Controlling the ambient temperature is really the only way to help with this issue.

As for your air conditioning comment, I would recomend that you ditch the window unit (why do you have a window in your facility?!) and purchase a proper dual split level airconditioner thats aircooled. With a dual split level unit, you have a little redundancy by having two air conditioning units balancing the temperatures.

This is already something that was there prior to my coming to this company. Who the f*** cuts a hole into a room and simply rams a window AC unit in for cooling? Beats me.:rolleyes:

Another alternative you have is to perhaps look at a heat removal unit, not an air conditioner, these are expensive in relation to the window or your split system, but they are designed to remove heat, not condition the air.

You mentioned something about having a dual split AC. Can you provide any links for these as well as recommended heat removal units?

I would advise against putting the airconditioner on the UPS system, they are not designed for that purpose, you would litterally kill your UPS system and have a very small runtime. What people typically do is put the air conditioner and room on a generator, the servers are on UPS's and the AC's are directly to the generator.... this way, you will have 30 seconds or less of switchover time where the AC is down, should not be an issue with a small facility such as yours. You can buy a small diesel generator or natural gas that has auto start and provide adequate power for a couple cabinets and two ac units.

Once again, no budget nor space for any generators. I could just cut it simple and place the AC unit on its own line, but this goes right back to what I was saying before. If the power goes out, the AC will go out, but the server will still be running, thanks to the UPS. This is where the problem is; I fear the drives are going to get so hot in the meantime that they are going to die, or even worse take the other drives down with them. In a Dell Poweredge 2800, the drive bays are physically so close to one another that heat spreading can be a real issue.

[Ockie]

Well, then run the AC unit off building power and have the server do an automatic shutdown in 15 mins or something, so that you can still skip brownouts and hiccups but wont overheat.

Here is a link to an ebay split system. You can find these for about 1,000-1,500, installation would be approx 1,000, you could pretty much do most of it yourself if you are technical and have an hvac company come and finish the rest of the system such as topping it off.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360064657860


Just search for dual mini split or call your HVAC company, they should be able to hook you up (just remember that you may get a sticker shock if you did it this way).


As for heat removal, I would recomend the APC InRow cooling solution, however, keep in mind, in addition to the installation costs, you will look at forking $6,000 and up for a unit such as this.

[ajm786]

Well, then run the AC unit off building power and have the server do an automatic shutdown in 15 mins or something, so that you can still skip brownouts and hiccups but wont overheat.

Here is a link to an ebay split system. You can find these for about 1,000-1,500, installation would be approx 1,000, you could pretty much do most of it yourself if you are technical and have an hvac company come and finish the rest of the system such as topping it off.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360064657860


Just search for dual mini split or call your HVAC company, they should be able to hook you up (just remember that you may get a sticker shock if you did it this way).

Here's another question. You know how some computers have this feature called "auto on" or something like that? Well, we obviously have the server set to "Auto on" on power recovery. This is so that if the power does happen to go out, and we run out of power on our UPS, the server will automatically power up when power gets back on. The problem is that if I have the server set to auto shutdown when a power out is detected, is there a similar setting that I can use to automatically power the server up when power is detected?

[Ockie]

Install a DRAC card in your server and have it automatically recover when the power is restored.